Metal Incorporated g-C₃N₄ Nanosheets as Potential Cytotoxic Agents for Promoting Free Radical Scavenging in Cancer Cell Lines.

Abstract

Besides numerous advantages, poor penetration, larger size and less efficient nanomaterials are the current challenges in nanomedicine-based therapies. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) possesses all the constructive features to overcome the hurdles in cancer therapy. This is a detailed study on the prospects of utilizing g-C₃N₄ as a therapeutic agent and through this study it has been established that metal incorporations have improved their performance at in vitro levels. g-C₃N₄ nanomaterial was prepared by simple thermal decomposition process. The synthesized nanosheets were characterized by using UV-visible spectrometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TG/DTA). The incorporation of metal particles also has been confirmed by the above mentioned methods. Dose dependent cytotoxicity studies were performed on three different cell lines such as A549, PC-3 and MCF-7. The free radical scavenging activity of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets was promising using 1,1'-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Cell scavenging activity of ˜45% with DPPH was observed at 100 μl concentrations of Ag/g-C₃N₄, Zn/g-C₃N₄ and g-C₃N₄. The cytotoxicity and free radical scavenging of cancer cell lines was better with metal incorporated g-C₃N₄ than their bare counterparts. Hence the study of these thin sheets of nanomaterial is encouraging to be explored as one of the future tools for biomedical therapeutics.